KUALA LUMPUR: Veteran Liew Daren is showing no sign of overcoming his poor form after he was knocked out in the All England first round on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old failed to join compatriots Lee Zii Jia and Ng Tze Yong in the last 16 after going down tamely 21-9, 21-16 to 2022 Malaysia Masters winner Chico Aura Dwi Wardayo of Indonesia.
Daren has now exited the first round on seven occasions, including at the German Open last week, since he last made the semi-finals of the Thailand Masters 10 months ago.
Also failed to shine were independent mixed pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai.
The world No 8 and seventh seeds hardly put up a fight as they lost 21-10, 21-14 to South Korea's Seo Seung Jae-Chae Yu Jung.
It was Soon Huat-Shevon's fourth first-round exit in as many years at the All England after brilliantly reaching the semi-finals in 2019.
Malaysia will now count on only four opening-round survivors --- Zii Jia and Tze Yong in the men's singles, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi (men's doubles) and Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing (mixed doubles) in the last 16 stages later today.
SELECTED RESULTS
1st round
Men's singles: Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Tha) bt Kento Momota (Jpn) 23-21, 21-15; Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo (Ina) bt Liew Daren (Mas) 21-9, 21-16; Li Shi Feng bt Angus Ng Ka Long (Hkg) 21-12, 8-1 ret; Weng Hong Yang (Chn) bt Jonatan Christie (Ina) 21-6, 21-11; Kenta Nishimoto (Jpn) bt Brian Yang (Can) 21-16, 21-14; K. Srikanth (Ind) bt Toma Junior Popov (Fra) 19-21, 21-14, 21-5;
Women's singles: An Se Young (Kor) bt Hsu Wen Chi (Tpe) 21-10, 21-12; He Bing Jiao (Chn) bt Iris Wang (US) 17-21, 21-17, 21-6; Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn) bt Mia Blichfeldt (Den) 21-9, 21-10;
Men's doubles: Ou Xuan Yi-Liu Yu Chen (Chn) bt Ben Lane-Sean Vendy (Eng) 21-18, 17-21, 21-16; Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan (Ina) bt Pramudya Kusumawardana-Yeremia Rambitan (Ina) 25-23, 21-18; Jeppe Bay-Lasse Molhede (Den) bt Akira Koga-Taichi Saito (Jpn) 18-21, 23-21, 24-22;
Women's doubles: Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida (Jpn) bt Catherine Choi-Josephine Wu (Can) 21-18, 21-7;
Mixed doubles: Praveen Jordan-Melati Daeva Oktavianti (Ina) bt Dejan Ferdinansyah-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja 19-21, 21-17, 21-18; Seo Seung Jae-Chae Yu Jung (Kor) bt Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie (Mas) 21-10, 21-14.